IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/prg/jnlelg/v2014y2014i1id374p1-46.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Aristotle's Theory of 'Sleep and Dreams' in the light of Modern and Contemporary Experimental Research

Author

Listed:
  • Christina S. Papachristou

Abstract

Aristotle's naturalistic and rationalistic interpretation of the nature and function of 'sleep' (hypnos) and 'dreams' (enypnia) is developed out of his concepts of the various parts (moria) or faculties/powers (dynameis) of the soul, and especially the functions of cognitive process: (a) sense/sensation (aisthésis), (b) imagination (fantasia), (c) memory (mnémé), and (d) mind/intellect (nous). Sleep "is a sort of privation (sterésis) of waking (egrégorsis)", and dreams are not metaphysical phenomena. The purpose of this paper is to provide a new reading of Aristotle's 'theory of sleep and dreams' through its connection to modern and contemporary research. To be more specific, through this analysis we shall try to present that many of the Stageirite philosopher's observations and ideas on the phenomenon of sleep and dreaming have been verified by current experimental research (e.g. Psychology, Psychophysiology, Neurobiology, Cognitive Science etc.).

Suggested Citation

  • Christina S. Papachristou, 2014. "Aristotle's Theory of 'Sleep and Dreams' in the light of Modern and Contemporary Experimental Research," E-LOGOS, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2014(1), pages 1-46.
    • Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlelg:v:2014:y:2014:i:1:id:374:p:1-46
    DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.374
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://elogos.vse.cz/doi/10.18267/j.e-logos.374.html
    Download Restriction: free of charge
    File URL: http://elogos.vse.cz/doi/10.18267/j.e-logos.374.pdf
    Download Restriction: free of charge
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.18267/j.e-logos.374?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:prg:jnlelg:v:2014:y:2014:i:1:id:374:p:1-46. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Stanislav Vojir (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/uevsecz.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.